WEBVTT - How Does the Mars Solar Conjunction Affect NASA?

0:00:01.920 --> 0:00:04.320
<v Speaker 1>Welcome to brain Stuff, a production of I Heart Radio.

0:00:06.200 --> 0:00:10.960
<v Speaker 1>Hey brain Stuff, Lauren Vogel Bomb here Right now, Mars

0:00:10.960 --> 0:00:13.240
<v Speaker 1>and Earth are dancing around the Sun for an event

0:00:13.320 --> 0:00:18.040
<v Speaker 1>that's formally called the Mars Solar conjunction. In simple terms,

0:00:18.120 --> 0:00:20.640
<v Speaker 1>it's a period when Mars and Earth are on opposite

0:00:20.640 --> 0:00:25.160
<v Speaker 1>sides of the Sun. So what's the big deal? For

0:00:25.480 --> 0:00:29.640
<v Speaker 1>roughly two weeks every two years, the solar conjunction takes place.

0:00:30.400 --> 0:00:33.440
<v Speaker 1>This year, it's happening between October two and October four.

0:00:34.560 --> 0:00:37.360
<v Speaker 1>During this time, the Sun obscures the two planets from

0:00:37.400 --> 0:00:40.959
<v Speaker 1>each other, essentially making Earth and Mars invisible to each other.

0:00:42.080 --> 0:00:45.559
<v Speaker 1>That means communication with NASA spacecraft on Mars is reduced

0:00:45.600 --> 0:00:51.920
<v Speaker 1>to a quiet chatter. But why no calms? Normally, the

0:00:51.960 --> 0:00:55.720
<v Speaker 1>Sun ejects hot ionized gas from its corona, which then

0:00:55.840 --> 0:00:59.520
<v Speaker 1>makes its way deep into space. It's not usually a problem,

0:00:59.560 --> 0:01:03.800
<v Speaker 1>but during solar conjunction, this gas can interfere with radio signals.

0:01:03.800 --> 0:01:06.640
<v Speaker 1>When engineers try to communicate with their spacecraft on and

0:01:06.720 --> 0:01:11.320
<v Speaker 1>above Mars, commands can be corrupted and result in unexpected

0:01:11.360 --> 0:01:16.720
<v Speaker 1>behavior from Mars's mission equipment. So a communication moratorium is

0:01:16.760 --> 0:01:20.600
<v Speaker 1>put in place, and during this mission controllers at NASA's

0:01:20.640 --> 0:01:24.199
<v Speaker 1>Jet Propulsion Lab turn off some instruments and collected store

0:01:24.240 --> 0:01:28.440
<v Speaker 1>data from the Odyssey and Mars Reconnaissance orbiters, which in

0:01:28.560 --> 0:01:32.640
<v Speaker 1>turn accumulate data from the on surface Curiosity and Perseverance

0:01:32.720 --> 0:01:36.920
<v Speaker 1>rovers and Insight Lander, although those are stationary during this time.

0:01:38.280 --> 0:01:41.520
<v Speaker 1>Only the Odyssey orbiter will attempt to relay any data

0:01:41.560 --> 0:01:44.759
<v Speaker 1>to Earth during the Solar conjunction, knowing that some info

0:01:44.800 --> 0:01:49.040
<v Speaker 1>will be lost. However, NASA will stop sending new instructions

0:01:49.040 --> 0:01:52.600
<v Speaker 1>to Mars during this time to avoid unexpected results from

0:01:52.600 --> 0:01:57.440
<v Speaker 1>misinterpreted signals. While NASA stopped sending new signals to its

0:01:57.480 --> 0:02:01.000
<v Speaker 1>spacecraft during the solar conjunction, control ers front load their

0:02:01.000 --> 0:02:04.400
<v Speaker 1>communications and send two weeks worth of messages in advance

0:02:04.640 --> 0:02:08.880
<v Speaker 1>to avoid the increased risk of radio interference. And it's

0:02:08.919 --> 0:02:11.560
<v Speaker 1>a rare opportunity for those working on these missions to

0:02:11.639 --> 0:02:15.120
<v Speaker 1>take time off, assuming there's no other projects needing their attention,

0:02:15.919 --> 0:02:18.120
<v Speaker 1>just like when you have your out of office message

0:02:18.120 --> 0:02:22.239
<v Speaker 1>on They'll check in after the Solar conjunction ends, and

0:02:22.320 --> 0:02:24.760
<v Speaker 1>when it's over, the spacecraft will send the data they've

0:02:24.760 --> 0:02:28.600
<v Speaker 1>collected to NASA's Deep Space Network, a system of massive

0:02:28.680 --> 0:02:33.440
<v Speaker 1>Earth based radio antenna managed by the JPL. Engineers will

0:02:33.440 --> 0:02:37.079
<v Speaker 1>spend about a week downloading the information before resuming normal

0:02:37.160 --> 0:02:41.440
<v Speaker 1>communication operations. If it's determined that any of the collected

0:02:41.520 --> 0:02:45.760
<v Speaker 1>data is corrupted, engineers can usually have that data retransmitted,

0:02:46.160 --> 0:02:48.960
<v Speaker 1>similar to your asking a colleague to re send a

0:02:49.080 --> 0:02:52.760
<v Speaker 1>lost or unreadable file, just from a lot further away.

0:02:58.040 --> 0:03:00.520
<v Speaker 1>Today's episode is based on the article so We'll Go

0:03:00.639 --> 0:03:03.480
<v Speaker 1>Silent during the Mars Solar Conjunction on how staff works

0:03:03.480 --> 0:03:07.000
<v Speaker 1>dot Com, written by Shery's Cunningham. The Brain suffs production

0:03:07.000 --> 0:03:09.160
<v Speaker 1>of Our Heart Radio in partnership with how Stuffworks dot

0:03:09.200 --> 0:03:11.720
<v Speaker 1>Com and it's produced by Tyler klang. Be four more

0:03:11.720 --> 0:03:14.440
<v Speaker 1>podcasts from My Heart Radio. Visit the heart Radio app,

0:03:14.560 --> 0:03:17.360
<v Speaker 1>Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.